News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-01-20
THE SUNDAY PULPIT.
a DISCOURSE BY THE REV. DIR, TAI.
MAGE.

TEXT: "When they had heard the King
they departed; and 10, the star, lchich they
SdlO an the east, lUent before them, til it
stood orer lchere the young child 0dS"-St
Mathew, ii. g.
AT this season all Christendom celebrates
the incarnation Step down out of the com
Portable surroundings in which you are into
chill December night in Bethlehem. Two
plain people hoteled in a village barn after
walk of eighty miles, too long for one in
poor health. No lords of state waiting in an
ante-C hamber as at the birth of other kings,
no messenger mounted at the doorway ready
TO herald the advent from city to city,
kindly medical attendance no satin lined
cradle to receive the infantile guest, but a
monarch born in a ho,telTy called the House
o. -, the night with diamonded finger
pointing to the place, the Door of Heaven
swung wide open to look out, from orchestral
baton dripping oYertureS of the Mess iah,
MINISTRIES of God standing on the lowest door
step OF Heaven to announce glory and good
Will Soon after the white bearded aStrolOgers
kneeI and from leathern pouch chink the
sLekeIs, and from open sack eXhale the tufts
OF tran6incenSe and rustic out the bundles
OF myrrh. The looSened star, the escaped
dONoIogy of celeStialS. Our world, lost
star, and another star rushing down the sky
u L night to beckon it home again. All
tia. scene will yet make all nations keep
Christmas. Now, are there not some new
lessons coming from this old story3 Lessons
not hackneyed by oft repeated! Oh yes.
Notice first of all, it was a sidereal appear
ace. Lo, the star went before them Why
MT black cloud in the shape of hand or
finger pointing down to the saared birth
Pa 9: Oh, cloud means trouble. The
world had had trouble enough. Why not a
shaft of lightning quivering in the sky and
striking down to the sacred birthpa q!
Lightning means Notwithstanding, all
c nsuming destruction, and the world had
had destruction enough. 1t was a star.
That means Joy, that means good cheer, that
hrNV-1 A
star! That means creative power, for did
not the morning stars sing together when
the portfolio of worlds was opened A stirl
That means de ence, for did not the stars in
their course fight against Sisera and for the
Lord people: star! That means brilliant
continuau, e, for are not the righteous to shine
as The stars forever and eyers Day-Star on
high Morning star of the Redeemer. That
unusual appearance in the sky that night
may have been a strange con junction of
worlds. You know astronomers calculated
1 ng years before it occurred the transit of
eluS and they can see a thousands years
ahead and can tell you what will be the con-
luaCt on of W rldS in the year 1886, and so
they can alculate backward, and CHI istia n
astronomers go into a calculation and they
tud that in what we call the year one there
was strange appearance in the Heavens;
aud the infdel, re Getting the Bible and de-
sPising Christianity, he goes into the same
calculation; and he is com pelled to dec are
t,tat IN the year one there was a strange APP
2. aranl g in the Heavens. The Chinese record,
made up, of course, entirely independe Mt OF
the Word of God, declares that in what we
call the year one, there was Strange appear
ance in the Heavens. That, ter
all, it may have been meteoric
appearance, such as you and l have |
sometimes witnessed. l stood on the plain |
AMI | saw in the western heavens, some |
years ago, meteor flash with such brillian- |
Cy an / precision that thought then that if |
/ had been on hill as high as that of Bethle- |
,1,T.
yards the place where it alighted. In the |
University of Iowa and in the British Mu- |
scum there are fragments of rock that have
been hurled Off from meteors as they went |
trailing their glory on the sky. So it does |
not seem to me at all improbable, this sidereal |
or. If you WILL this meteoric appearance on
that Christmas night Oh am so glad that |
it was not cloud Of threat but star of
hope that shone that night l do not wonder
that The dying college student when he
caught glimpse of that star, took his pen,
and the light seemed flashing from his fin
gers and the star seemed DOuring its lustre
from his lips while Kirk White wrote those
immortal words:
When marshaled on the nightly plain,
The glittering host bestud the sky;
One star alone of all the train
Could fix the sinners wandering eye.
Hark, bark to God, the chorus breaks
From every host, from every gem;
But one alone the Saviour speaks,
1t is the star of Bethlehem.
Once on the raging sea rode,
The storm was loud, the night was dark,
And rudely blew the wind that tossed
My laundering bark.
Deep low within my vitalS froZe
Death struck ceased the tide to stem,
" hen suddenly star arose,
1t was the star of Bethlehem.
People are sorry that Kirk White died af.
ter writing that 1t was enough for a life
time to have written it, and no wonder when |
he completed it the glories of Heaven swal-
lowed him up.
aletiee also in that scene that Other, worlds
seemed adore our Lord and Master. bright
star of night, wheel on in thine orbit NO" |
says the star, 81 must come nearer I must
bend, | must watch to see what they will do
with Jesus Another world in worship
That star bowed in obedience. 1 sometimes
hear people talk as though the few thousand
miles of this word of ours were all of the
Savior's dominion: but l sunnose all the mil
lions and billions and quadrillions of worlds
are inhabited-perhaps not by such crea-
lures as we are, but by such creatures as God
the Saviour's realm. Only one dislOyal |
world in the universe. You know that
the great organ of the universe with its
s ops, its keys, its pedals, its pipes, had a
complete harmony save one injured pedal,
sa-e one broken key, the roT humane of the |
human race. This disloyal world You
know that however grand an instrument, if
there is one broken key it spoils the harmony.
And Christ is to mend this broken key, and re- {
tore this injured pedal and the world will be {
Isle of Wight, larger in comparison with the
British Empire than our world is compared
with Christ's dominion. That Christmas {
night astronomy surrendered to Christ. {
system for Christ. Worlds ablaze [
and worlds burned out - all worlds for |
Christ. Minutest and keenest microscope I
cannot see the one side of Christ's dominion,
nj fort EEuN obi I'll
the other side of Christ'S dominion. But l :
VIII tell you how the universe is bounded. {
It IS bounded on the north and south and I
east and west by God and God is Christ, and
Christ is God, and that God is ours. Oh ]
my friends, does it not enlarge your ideas of {
a Saviour'S dominion to realize that all the {
worlds are only SO many sparks struck from t
lis anvlls That the worlds are so many
ice y docks following the one shepherd! |
1 nat all the Islands of light in immeuslty are 2
4 great archipelago of Christ's dominion? |
BUT InOtice also in this science that have
y ken of the fact that it was the profound I
nd the learned men of the world who came i
% Christ. 1hs Bible SaY5 the wise men of | ,
he East. We call them the magi, the as I
ESIogerS, the alchemlsts, and we pronounce
q If names with depreciating accentua-
aJn Do You know who they were. They
we're the most splendid and magnificent men
the century. They knew all that was
,@owh. Do you not recognize the fact that
-S.rOlogy is the mother of astronomy Do
-cu not recognize the fact that alchemy is
ne mother of chemistry! And you do not .
esI}lse the mother because you admire the
mid. Why these astrolOgers spent their
ives IN studying the stars; :, $50 years be-
ore Christ was born these aStrolOgers studied
he procession of the equinox and calculated ,
ne orbit and return of the comets. Profess
or smith says he thinks they understood the
Il tanHe between the sun and the earth Y on |
I'M not only InaU IN JoD, but you nave sug-
-C5ted to you that other men in his day knew
at the world was not fat but globular-
Isaiah knewit as though it were modern dis
,overy, or within few centuries, that the
n Orld Is round. Isaiah knew it. He says Of
tod: He sitteth on the circle of the EARTH" |
After the world has progressed in study hun |
iieIS OF years it may get up to the point |
that the lost arts may be as great as the liv-
lu-c arts. How was it with those alchemistSf
;, ny, they spent their lives in the study of
m tails and gases and solids and liquids, and
they filled whole libraries with their discoY-
Il e5. They understood embalmment as no
lGea in our time understand embalmment !
And they were very wise men. They were
not only among wise men, but they were the
three wisest men. Caspar, a young man;
Blithazar, a man of middle age, and |
an ocUogenar1an. The three
tie feet Cf Christ. So it IS now The
b aIniest men of this century are Christians.
J, no was the greatest metaphysician of | ,
a narical Jonathan Edwards, the Christian.
vs. no was the greatest astronomer of the
y rid Herschel, the Christian. Who was
he greatest poet the world has ever SEEM
chm Milton, the Christian. Who wrote the
Eightiest treatiseS on law that have ever
zen writteng blackstone, the Christian. Why